Not the one you thought of, but an important one too.
All these charges and convictions should not affect our current work, and we are continuing our efforts on all fronts. In particular, we are fighting for the right to take part in elections.
This is the key point: right now, in the period between major elections, many people may think it is not especially important, but before we know it, it will be time for the State Duma elections again. And once again they will present us with an “approved list,” where the “non-systemic opposition” of any political persuasion is graciously allowed to vote for the only permitted party, Yabloko, whose candidate list has once again been approved in the right places, making sure, God forbid, that there is no one on it who might actually get elected.
So let me remind you once again: the demand for access to participation in elections is the most important political demand right now.
The Ministry of Justice is still not allowing us, the Progress Party, to take part in elections—and doing so so unlawfully that we are even winning court cases against it at the lower levels.
As you may remember, we won such a case in Kashira, but the court in Moscow Region overturned that ruling after all the top brass showed up at the hearing—from the Ministry of Justice and the Central Election Commission to the prosecutor’s office.
A few days ago, a similar court hearing took place in Arkhangelsk. We demanded that the inaction of the regional Ministry of Justice office in failing to add our regional branch to the lists of electoral associations be declared unlawful, and that we be added to those lists. That would allow us to run in elections in this region.
They put up a barrier against us simply by refusing to include us on that list. It is total lawlessness, but what can you do? They just do not include us, even though by law we have every right to nominate candidates.
It is the Ministry of Justice’s duty to include us on the list of electoral associations, not a discretionary right it may exercise as it pleases.
We won the case. Here is the official ruling.
The Ministry of Justice’s inaction was declared unlawful. The court ordered the Ministry of Justice to include the "Progress Party" on the list of electoral associations allowed to participate in elections.
This ruling may, of course, be overturned by a higher court, and once again we expect a gathering of the entire crooked officialdom for the purpose of pressuring the court. However, this is already the second case in which we have proved that the law is on our side.
We will continue this work no matter what.
P.S. And at this very moment, the Progress Party is in court against the Russian government, demanding the publication of salary data for people like Sechin and Yakunin: